


East German Laundry Detergent

by Duck_Life



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Curtain Fic, Fallen Castiel, Human Castiel, Laundry, M/M, Post Sacrifice, Ross and Rachel AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-20
Updated: 2013-05-20
Packaged: 2017-12-12 09:02:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,239
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/809785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Duck_Life/pseuds/Duck_Life
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cas never had to wash his clothes before. Dean has to help him out. Based off the Friends episode "The One With The East German Laundry Detergent". Oneshot. Please R&R!</p>
            </blockquote>





	East German Laundry Detergent

After Cas gets back to the bunker, everything’s hectic. Everything’s hectic for a long time, but after a while, as with all catastrophes, the bigger, sweeping problems give way for the mundane ones like sleeping arrangements and, in this case, the need to do laundry.

“But I never had to wash my coat before,” Cas argues, following Dean into his bedroom.

“Yeah, well, you were an angel then,” Dean reminds him, trying like hell not to make the words hurt. “You can’t just zap yourself clean anymore. You’ve got dirt on the trench, and as for the rest of it- no offense, buddy, but you’re starting to smell.”

Cas seems to resolve himself and says, “Alright. What do I do?” The seriousness in his expression almost makes Dean laugh.

“I’ve got some laundry to do,” he says, nodding to a canvas bag on the floor. “We can go to the Laundromat down the road. You gotta change into something else, though. They’re not too thrilled about people going in naked.” He stops to smile at a memory. “That was a crazy night.”

“What do I wear?”

Dean tosses Cas one of his gray t-shirts and a pair of jeans that are just a little too small for him but would probably fit Cas well enough. When he catches them, Castiel immediately starts stripping off his coat and undoing his tie, to which Dean jerks his gaze upward and away, feeling his face flush. _It’s no big deal, Winchester, guys change in front of each other in the locker room all the time_.

Once Cas is outfitted in Dean’s clothes (and Dean won’t let himself think about how he looks in them, nope, it’s easier to just keep not looking at him) they head out for the Laundromat with a bag of clothes in the backseat and a box of some German detergent called Uberweiss that Cas found under the sink.

When they get there, Dean runs off to get change from the machine outside while Cas sets up at one of the washing units by putting the bag on top. As soon as he turns away, though, a large woman with a sour expression steps up behind him and pushes the bag away, putting her own basket on top.

“Um, excuse me,” Cas says, finding her occupying his washing machine. “I was using that.” Inwardly, he’s praying for Dean to get back soon. Human interaction was hard enough when he _wasn’t_ human. “My bag was on top.”

“Well, I didn’t see any suds,” she answers, not budging. “No suds, no machine.”

Cas wants to argue, to get the machine back before Dean returns and gets mad at him, but he doesn’t know what to say so he slides his bag to the next one and ducks his head, letting her get on with her laundry.

When Dean gets back and asks what’s going on, Cas tells him in a low voice, “That horrible woman took my machine.”

“What?” Dean asks, glancing above Cas’s ducked head to the woman who’s now tossing her clothes into the washing machine. “How’d she get away with that?”

“Well, there were no suds-”

“That’s not a rule,” he mutters, pushing past Cas to get to the woman. “Hey, my friend was using that machine.”

“And now I’m using it,” she shrugs. “Funny how things change.”

“There’s no rule about suds, and you know it,” Dean tells her, standing his ground while Cas watches on behind him. “Go get your own machine.”

And he must’ve tensed up or looked threatening because she replies, shocked, “You wouldn’t hit a woman.”

“What show have you been watchin’?” After that, she huffs but collects her clothes back into her hamper and walks away. “Friggin’ humans,” says Dean, sliding back to let Cas get at the washing machine.

As soon as he’s got the machine open again, Castiel starts dumping all the clothes in the bag into it. “Whoa, whoa, Cas,” Dean says, stopping him with an arm. “You gonna separate those?”

“Oh… I messed up,” he sighs, looking down forlornly at the clothing. “Are you supposed to use one machine for shirts and one for pants, or…”

“You’ve really never done this before,” Dean laughs.

“Well, no,” says Cas, looking annoyed. “I guess I’m a laundry virgin.”

“Don’t worry,” Dean smiles, “we’ll use the gentle cycle.” While Cas stares at him in confusion Dean bites down on the urge to smack himself in the face and begins helping Cas separate the whites from the darks. As they work, Dean can’t help but notice the other patrons eyeing them, some with hardly-concealed homophobic irritation and some with a simpering adoration, and it doesn’t take him long to figure out what they’re all thinking about these two “friends.” _It’s no big deal, Winchester, guys do each other’s laundry together all the time._

When the rinse cycle is done and the washing machine jumps to a halt, Dean starts tugging each article of clothing out, one by one, while sending Cas for a laundry cart. “You’re doing good,” he lets Cas know over the lid of the washing machine.

“Thanks,” he mutters, staring at the floor. With more confidence, he looks up to meet Dean’s eyes and says, “You know, I feel like, if I can do this, I can do anything. If I can do my own laundry, everything else will come too.” Dean knows what he means- he can be human, he can get by without access to Heaven. He wants to say something but he feels like if he opens his mouth, he’ll either start shouting or break down, so he just keeps pulling wet clothes out of the machine.

But when Cas turns around to pull the cart he’d selected toward Dean, he finds that same woman pulling it away. “Excuse me,” he says, though he really doesn’t want to be polite to her, “I had that cart.”

“And I had a 24-inch waist. You lose things.”

Like she needs to talk to Cas about losing things. This time, Castiel won’t let her get away with anymore. Resolutely, he pulls the cart back towards himself and, to her amazement, pulls himself up and sits in it cross-legged. “You want this cart, you’ll have to take me with it,” he says, sounding incredibly badass for a guy who just folded himself up inside a laundry cart. The woman looks at Dean for some explanation but he just shrugs.

“Jeez, fine,” she sighs finally, stalking off and pushing the cart away to where Dean catches it and spins it around to face him, and Cas is smiling for what seems like the first time in ages.

“You did it,” Dean laughs, hands on the sides of the cart where Cas is scrunched up.

“I- thank-you, Dean,” Cas says, looking _ecstatic_ as he grapples for the edges of Dean’s plaid shirt. “I couldn’t have done that without you.” And maybe it’s the newly-human emotions swilling around in his brain, or just the moment, or whatever, but Cas pulls him down and kisses him, full on the mouth.

Dean straightens up, looking startled and muddled up but not unhappy. “Uh…” he says intelligently. “More clothes in the dryer?” _It’s no big deal, Winchester, guys kiss each other all the time_ , he tells himself, and that’s right about when he turns around, walks into the open dryer door, and bangs his head.

 


End file.
